With its success since coach Michelle Brazil arrived on campus, the Branson School girls volleyball team has been making team history for several years. Saturday, the Bulls took it up a notch by etching their name in the high school state record books.

The Bulls, after earlier grabbing league, section and NorCal titles, added a fourth consecutive Division V state championship to their list of accomplishments with a three-game sweep of Vista's Tri-City Christian at Concordia College in Irvine. Branson's 25-9, 25-21, 25-8 victory over the Eagles allowed the Bulls to tie the state record for consecutive championships previously achieved by only three other schools.

"I didn't even know about that record," said Brazil, who now has four titles in her four seasons at the school. "I think this (title) is more fun because it's now, but anytime you wind up winning it's really exciting. But this one feels the best because it's happening right now."

Entering the match, there were several factors that suggested that Branson (42-3) could win. The Bulls, for example, had already set a school record with 41 victories and had lost only one match against a team from California this season. Then there was the fact that they had defeated Tri-City Christian in each of the past three state championship matches. And then there was the matter of big-match experience, as several of the players had been key cogs in previous title runs.

But the Bulls insist they weren't looking at anything from the past as they faced the Southern California-champion Eagles (18-21).

"It's unbelievable," said senior McKenna Becker, whose kill provided the match-clinching point for the Bulls. "All three years I was on varsity we won state. But if you go into a game expecting to win, that's how teams get beaten. But if you go into a game expecting to play well, confident in what you can do and confident in your abilities then that's the only way you can win a game. And we went into this game knowing that if we played up to the way we're capable of playing that we could pull it out. But I don't think we ever expected to win."

Branson actually fell into a 4-1 hole in Game 1, but it didn't take the Bulls long to get things straightened out. They tied the game at 4-4 and then snapped a 6-6 tie with a nine-point run with Gaby Steiner at the service line to take control.

Sarah Wallace, who had a match-high 15 kills, provided six of them in that opening game as she overshadowed Tri-City Christian standout McKenna Hollingsworth, who had just seven kills for the match. As a team, Branson finished with 35 kills — including eight from sophomore Jordan Winters and seven by freshman Grace Roberts-Burbank — compared to the Eagles' 16.

"It was super fun to get out there and play on the biggest stage you can play on," Wallace said. "I just took this opportunity and wanted to make the most of it, so I had a blast today. I definitely think in the first game, when we started to get a lot of runs, I felt like we were in control of the match. That built our confidence early on and helped us through the rest of the match."

Though Tri-City Christian did a better job of hanging with Branson in Game 2, the Eagles fell into a 4-0 hole to start things and never wrestled the lead away from Branson. Then, in Game 3, the Bulls jumped to a 9-4 lead and then blew the match open with Steiner again at the service line with an 11-0 run that made it 20-4. From there, it was clearly a question of when, not whether, the Bulls would be picking up another championship trophy.

"Initially, when I started serving I thought it was just a normal thing," said Steiner, whose setting resulted in 32 assists and whose defense produced six digs. "But when we got to 20 points, I thought, 'Oh my God, this has to be it.' It was really fun. "... Serving is such a crucial part of the game. A lot of coaches tell you that it's the element of the game that you have most control over because it's something that just takes a lot of reps to do. And if you can deliver in the moment, then it's going to help your team. "

For Tri-City Christian, which lost in the championship match for the fifth consecutive year, the result appeared a bit easier to accept than in previous title contests.

"Maybe we didn't play our best,'' Tri-City Christian coach Kristen Wright told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "We lost to a team that was better than us and played better than us. Playing in five straight makes me feel humble and proud. We were pursuing victory, but it's OK when the other team is better.''

For Branson, proving to be the better team in the championship match was satisfying.

"I honestly think we played one of our best matches of the season," said Bulls libero Whitney Hansen, who is among the three seniors who completed their Branson careers with the match. "If' I'm going to be honest, I think our best was in the NorCal finals against Woodside Priory. But I think this game we played very similarly to how we did then. There were a lot more nerves going around and a lot more emotion because it was the last game. So this is one of our best games of the season and it's a good way to finish the season."